Page 25 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #2
P. 25
By Skyler Miller broken down into three ele-
ments: navigating the city map,
This year marks the 15th driving, and ghostbusting. The
anniversary of Ghostbusters, city map is where you’ll spend
the 1984 hit comedy starring most of your time. Here, you
Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Har- see a complete layout of the
old Ramis, and Ernie Hudson. city, which consists of build-
Directed by Ivan Reitman and ings, the “Zuul” building, and
written by Akroyd and Ramis, the Ghostbusters headquar-
the movie grossed almost ters.
$240 million in the U.S., A flashing red building is the
spawning a sequel, two televi- signal for a ghost call. After
sion cartoons, and a variety of moving to the flashing building,
video games on several plat- you change into driving mode;
forms. the more expensive your car,
The video games are what the faster you’ll get to your des-
we’re most interested in here, tination. Then it’s time to set up
naturally. The first Ghost- the trap, coax the ghost into
busters based game arrived on just NES Title Screen position with your proton beams,
about every home console and and grab the ugly spud.
computer known to man. Designed one. Once this information is en- If he gets away, one of your
by David Crane, the extraordinary tered, you are presented with a men will be knocked over, and
programmer also responsible for loan of $10,000 to spend on a new you’ll hear the familiar phrase, “He
Pitfall!, Ghostbusters was distinc- Ghostbusters franchise. There are slimed me!” If you run out of traps
tive due to its business simulation four cars and a selection of equip- or two of your Ghostbusters get
elements and multi-objective game ment to choose from including slimed, you must return to head-
play. traps, ghost vacuums, marshmal- quarters.
The version most people are low detectors, and ghost bait, to Each caught ghost earns you a
familiar with is the Commodore 64 name a few. certain amount of money depend-
adaptation. After the game finishes With your car packed and ing on how fast you respond. The
loading (which takes forever on the ready, it’s time to hit the streets of objective is to earn back more
1541 disk drive), you are immedi- New York. The actual game play is money than you started with before
ately treated to a demented- the city’s PK level (the ghost’s
sounding voice emissions)
yelling, reaches 10,000. If
“Ghostbusters! you fail, the game
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ends. If you
ha!” followed by achieve your goal,
the familiar you are allowed to
Ghostbusters enter the Zuul
theme song. building, where
Then a little ball you must get two
appears and Ghostbusters past
bounces on top of the Marshmallow
the lyrics in time Man. If you do
with the music that, you win the
(Pressing F1 or game, are re-
F3 begins the warded with extra
game). cash, and given
Next, you are an account num-
asked to enter ber, which may be
your name and used to continue
an account num- the game at a
ber, if you have
Atari 2600
Classic Gamer Magazine Winter 2000 25
